Training matters: 2 Data-driven reasons for investing in corporate training

With only 8% of companies measuring the impact of their corporate training, many training departments’ contributions go unnoticed. As holiday season kicked off with Thanksgiving and many of us spent time counting our blessings, we wanted to give proper due to these team contributions and how virtual IT labs can help.

Since you’re probably still stuffed from polishing off all of those delicious sides and pumpkin pies, we dug into the data for you. Here are some data-backed reasons to say thanks to your hard working corporate training team.

Alternatively, if you are the one leading the training department, invite management to a feast to thank them for giving you the opportunity to make an impact with hands-on training… and share these numbers with them. Because what doesn’t get measured doesn’t get acknowledged, and doesn’t gain extra budget for next year.

Employee Training Improves Employee Performance & Retention

It should go without saying that giving employees relevant skills and tools such as virtual classroom software, to do their jobs better and set them up for success is bound to improve performance. Engineers who are consistently trained on up and coming technologies, for example, can keep their organizations at the forefront of innovation.

In fact, a Middlesex University study revealed 74% of employees believe that a lack of corporate training doesn’t allow them to reach their fullest potential, reports Your Training Edge.

It’s no surprise, then, that providing professional training or using a virtual classroom has become a key differentiator when competing to recruit and retain the kind of talent that drives bottom line results.

But it goes deeper than that. Your Training Edge adds that, according to the Middlesex University study, “employee satisfaction grows with the number of corporate trainings they are exposed to.” According to Good & Co, happy employees are 3x more creative, 31% more productive and drive 37% higher sales.

Happy employees also stay longer with your organization, which is profitable. As Business Insider reports, “firms that promote more people internally are known to have a higher shareholder value.” That’s because “external hires are often paid more, but may perform less well… due to ‘getting up to speed,'” it adds.

Corporate Training Leads to Higher Customer Lifetime Value, Referrals and Advocacy

Other than your employees, the most important people in your company are your customers. According to Invesp, increasing customer retention by 5% can lead to up to 95% increase in profits, so many companies have begun prioritizing customer success.

Salesforce surveyed more than 6,700 consumers and business buyers, and found that companies that focus on customer success gain, among others, 25% increase in revenue, 25% increase in marketing ROI, 38% faster decision making, 35% faster deployment, and 35% increase in customer satisfaction.

That satisfaction often leads to referrals, which according to SaaStr Fund founder Jason M. Lemkin’s 2015 Gainsight Pulse speech, is how companies like Google, Facebook and Adobe scale so massively. “They get 80% of their customers from their old customer,” he said.

Customer training is key to achieving this. And, this can easily be done with virtual IT training. In fact, a “trained partner generates an average of six times the revenue of a non-trained one,” said CloudShare’s customer, Robert Lillywhite, Global Technical Enablement Manager at Sophos, after training over 8,000 partners with our virtual training lab in one year.

Of course, your training department doesn’t only train your customers to optimize success with your products – it also gives your employees the skills and tools they need to help customers succeed.

To learn more about our work with customers and how virtual IT labs can support your company’s efforts, visit our training solution pages.